all the ducks seem to be getting in a row and we seem set for commencing our cruise this year. Between now and end of April, we plan to be cruising the far North of NZ, then setting sail for Vanuatu, Solomons, then Cairns where we hope to join the Indonesia Rally leaving Cairns (Australia) in early July.

Are any of you guys in the neighbourhood? We had a report of another F39PHS in the Auckland area, but have not sighted her yet.

Just a wee update. The sailing plans all came together and we are now based in Malaysia for the foreseable future. We did have the pleasure of meeting a sister ship Starsend II in Noumea, a lovely boat very well looked after. We particularly liked the hard dodger enclosing the cockpit. It seemed to work very well providing shelter from both weather and heat.

We by passed Aus as it turns out, and joined the sail to Indonesia fleet as it cleared out of Aus in the Torres strait. We were a little surprised to find we were one of the smaller boats. Back home we are one of the bigger ones. It seems most cruising boats are around 43-45 feet, 15-20 tons. The bigger boats had a lot of nice gadgets, washing machines, air con etc., but they also took a lot more looking after. More fuel, higher marina charges, more system problems in the harsh tropical climate.

We were very gratified at the sailing performance of the f39. Day after day, sailing off the wind or flat down wind, we easily kept up with the bigger boats, even cats. Out of 50 boats we were in the first 10 to arrive in that leg of the passage, about 1300 miles. That is the main reason we are keeping Fyne Spirit and giving her a birthday.

Another reason became apparent when we arrived in Noumea. A number of bigger flasher yachts made the passage at the same time as us. Fine looking production boats. It was a tough passage, beam reach the whole way, a big beam sea breaking over us and knocking us around quite a bit. But in the marina in Noumea, each of the bigger boats was covered in squabs put out to dry, and were seriously smelly down below. Fyne Spirit had stayed dry, the inside being just as dry as usual. The longer we have this boat, the more we like it.

Of course we did have the adventure of the broken mast, and again this showed the advantages of the rig. Firstly, no one was injured, secondly we didn't have the problem of a battering ram attached by wires to the boat. The mast was realtively easy to secure and we even managed to recover the radome.We didn't loose any sails, and still had the foresail and foremast to sail with. So though damaged, we were not disabled and it was realtively easy to continue the voyage. We sailed about 1000 miles with the main mast lashed to the boat. The final thing as that the mast can be repaired. I'll let you know how that turns out.